Dark
by XxTeepxX
Summary: There was nothing she feared more than the dark and not being in control. A good weekend with friends turns into a disaster as one by one, things go from good to bad in the dark while she looses the control she thought she had.
1. Chapter 1

Hey guys. This is my shot at redemption after my last train wreck. The first couple chapters of this are basically setting up for things to happen later on. I do not own anything that obviously doesn't belong to me.

* * *

For as long as I can remember, I've always been afraid of what I couldn't see and loosing control. When I walked into a room, that light had to be on before I went in there or I had to run my hand along the wall and turn on the lights before I would even walk into the room. I was always afraid to go into the kitchen at night by myself too. I always felt someone was watching me through the sliding glass door and I just couldn't see them. If I was in there by myself, worst case scenarios always ran through my head like, 'what if some psycho bursts through the glass' or 'what if someone tries to shoot me through the window from outside.' I can't even walk through my house at night without getting freaked out when I walk past windows. For some reason, I always think someone is watching me from the outside, just waiting for the perfect moment to do something to me in my own house.

When I was younger, I'd have dreams about people in my house chasing me around trying to hurt me but I always woke up before anything too bad could happen. This fear of mine is something I have never told anyone.

--------------------

Thursday, January 15

As Rin walked down the halls of her school, she was on the look out for her friends. She had planed on inviting them over for the weekend so she wouldn't have to be alone when her parents left to celebrate their anniversary over a three day weekend. Finally she found one of them, Ayame, at her locker gathering her books for the morning classes.

"Hey there." Rin said getting Ayame's attention.

"Oh, hey." Ayame said zippering her book bag.

"Are you doing anything important this weekend?" Rin asked as they walked to homeroom together.

"No, I don't think so, why?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to stay over this weekend. You know, you, me, Sango, and Kagome, watch a few movies, do typical girl things."

"Sounds good, I guess I can come over."

"Awesome." Rin said as she and Ayame split up and went to their different homerooms. "Now, all I have to do is ask Sango during homeroom and Kag during second period." she said to herself.

Rin walked into the classroom and immediately went to her seat. She put her book bag on the floor and sat down at the second desk in the third row. Sango was already in her seat with her book bag on the desk and her head on it. She sat in the first row, second desk.

"Sango." she called but didn't receive an answer. Rin sighed and called a little louder. "Hey, Sango!"

Sango stirred and turned her head towards the sound of the voice calling her. "What?"

"Want to come over this weekend? Ayame is and Kag probably is too." Rin asked.

"Uh, sure. Why not?" Sango agreed. "What do you have planned to do?"

"Oh, the usual sleep over agenda." Rin said just before the morning announcements came over the loudspeaker. Rin halfheartedly listened to the announcements since nothing really concerned her. When the people that had earned a detention were called down, she completely stopped listening and went over a mental check list of what she needed for Friday. The bell rang and everyone in the room slowly made their way out of the classroom to get to first period. She walked with Sango until they got outside the room, then Sango had to wait for all the people from the room next to theirs to get out before going in, Rin was waiting for Ayame to come out of the very room. When Ayame came out, she told Rin of everything she had just gone through in the fifteen minutes they were in homeroom.

"…And then they asked why I have earrings in my face." Ayame said, "so I told them that their in my face, so they're not earrings. Then the asked me why I had face rings, which doesn't make much sense at all, but I let it slide, so I said, its only a nose ring and a Monroe." Ayame stopped to take a breath so Rin took the chance to say something.

"Well, they look nice." Rin said as the rounded the corner to the English corridor.

"Yeah.." she said but then her eyes caught sight of the principle, who was very strict the uniform policy: polo shirt, khaki or navy pants, no denim, no shower shoes, no overly baggy clothes, no outrageous hairstyles, and no abnormal piercing, only earrings were considered acceptable. "Oh crap! Marshall!" Ayame said referring to the principle, who just so happened to be in that corridor talking to the junior English teacher, the teacher they had for first period. Ayame was very quick in her movements, her nose suddenly became itchy by her nose ring and she bit the post of the stud in her mouth, pulling in the gem of the piercing on her face. It was all a common thing she did when she walked by the principle or he came in the room she was in.

When they finally got past the principle and teacher, she pushed the gem back out and stopped scratching her nose.

"You're getting good at that." Rin commented.

"Its either that or wear a band aid over them, which looks ridiculous. Then I'd be even more or a red head freak"

"You are not, now stop with that." Rin said rolling her eyes at what they went through almost every morning

They walked into the class and got their senior project folders out of the bin in front of the room. After getting their folders, they separated to their seats. Somehow, Rin was in the last seat of the last row and Ayame was in the third seat of the fourth row. After taking their seats, the girls looked at their outlines for the research paper that went along with their senior projects. Rin had finished her outline this morning, but Ayame had completely forgot about it.

"Shit!" she stage whispered to herself then turned around to look at Rin. "Why didn't you remind me to do the outline?"

"Because I forgot to do it too until this morning. I did it when I planned to be fixing my nail polish." Rin said referring to her unusually plain fingers. "Thank you graduation requirements." she added sarcastically. "Just write some crap down."

"Yeah, I B.S. my way through most of my classes anyway." Ayame said beginning to write down things that seemed vaguely similar to her topic.

Forty minutes later, the bell rang signaling the end of first period and the rush to get to the next class within the two minutes allotted time. Rin pushed her way past hordes of seventh graders in a desperate attempt to get into the biology room. Not only did she want to get in there to resume her rat dissection, she had to ask Kagome about coming over. Finally, she broke through the flow of students and crossed the hallway to enter the classroom. She looked toward her seat and saw Kagome already there.

"Hey Kag, my parents are celebrating their eternal love anniversary this weekend, want to come over?"

"Sure! Its been almost a week since I slept in your house." Kagome answered in her typical way.

"Great." Rin said getting up. "Come on, let's go get Nancy Grace and study the inside of her." she said talking about their rat.

Soon the bell rang and it meant it was time for French. A class all four of them had together. After doing what the teacher assigned them, there were ten minutes left to the class. This happened often so the girls knew what to do, talk about their plans for the weekend and think of some good things to do. Again, the bell rang and since today was an even day in the school's six day schedule, the girls had gym.

They were always late for this class, but that didn't matter since it was only gym and the teacher gave them ten minutes to change out of their classroom uniforms and into the gym uniforms. Once they were changed and in the gym, the teacher told them had two weeks of soccer to look forward to. The teams were made and the girls were split up. Kagome and Ayame on one team and Sango and Rin on the other. The girls never really took gym seriously and prided themselves on angering the girls who did. There had been times that they sat down on the floor during kickball games and skipped around during flag football. Soccer was a slightly more challenging thing to mess up so they just yelled to each other across the width of the three basketball court gym. Once they had their twenty minutes of physical education in, the teacher blew her whistle signaling they had ten minutes to get changed back into their classroom uniforms. The girls made the most effort during this part of the class. They ran into the locker room, got changed and started goofing around in their row of lockers. When the bell rang, they rushed out of the locker room and headed for their lockers to switch their morning books for their afternoon books. Somewhere in the hallway, Koga and Miroku popped up. Koga walked to Ayame and grabbed her hand before she even noticed he was there. Miroku was slightly more sneaky and wrapped his arm around Sango's shoulders to pull her into him.

"Holy cow! I think I've just been startled!' Ayame said when Koga took her hand.

"Yeah, same here." Sango said slightly pushing Miroku away from her and taking his hand instead.

"You're both dweebs." Kagome said before taking a hold of what seemed to be a random hand and pulling the owner along.

"And you're not?" Rin asked. "You practically just kidnapped your boyfriend from his locker."

"Like you haven't done the same."

"I'm not saying I haven't , you just set yourself up for it."

"Uh huh, go find Sess." Kagome said when she got to her locker.

"Will do." Rin said as she walked to her locker.

Once she had everything she needed, Rin rejoined her group of friends and began walking to the cafeteria. The were halfway to the cafeteria when someone grabbed Rin's hand and pulled her into the arts corridor. Somewhere between the industrial arts room and the senior high art room, Rin was pushed against the wall and kissed.

Giggling, Rin pulled away and looked at her boyfriend. "You should come over this weekend . My parents are going to be gone."

"Really?" he asked interested.

"Yep, and the girls are coming over which means the guys probably are too."

"You have a knack for killing the mood."

"It's a gift I was born with." Rin said shrugging. "Let's go, I'm starving. Gym was very physically demanding today."

"Yeah, I saw you and Sango yelling to Kagome and Ayame."

"It's a pretty big gym." Rin mused. "How did you see us though, I didn't see the guy's class at all."

"We were in the weight room, getting buff and stuff. You just weren't on the right side of the gym to see us." he said. "Well, that and you hardly pay any attention to what's going on around you." he added

By now the duo had entered the cafeteria and were already at the rectangular table. They sat down and quickly were engaged in conversations between members of the same gender.

After lunch, the day flew by. Soon, Rin found herself driving to Kagome's house with Kagome sitting next to her singing along to the songs Rin had on her iPod. Kagome had the device in her left hand and was looking through the songs.

"Oh man, I love this song." she said as she quickly touched the screen on the song title

and began to sing along again.

Rin listened to the beginning of the song and recognized it as 'The Ides of March', one of

her favorite songs by Silverstein. She smiled and began to sing with Kagome but suddenly she stopped when she was filled with a sense of dread. She had listened to the song on repeat so many times before and the lyrics never had this effect on her. She knew that the meaning of the song was way different than what she was making it out to be right now, but still she couldn't help but to feel uneasy as the words to first verse sunk in.

Tie me up with sheets, and hang me from your tree

I'll stay out here all night, it doesn't even matter

As long as I can see, into your room and feel

Like I'm inside your life, I'll follow you forever

--------------------

She went through the rest of the day feeling that way. She eventually concluded that she was being irrational and pushed the feeling to the back of her head. After all, there were only two more hours left of Thursday, then it would be Friday and she was not letting something so silly bother her and ruin her weekend.

* * *

Chapter 1 of "Dark" is complete. Let me know what you think. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter is still setting. Soon, things are going to get good, just not now.

* * *

_Friday, January 16_

Rin woke up the sound of the alarm clock on her cell phone. Groining, she turned and reached out to find the abomination that any other time she would be lost without. After successfully finding the phone and turning off the alarm, Rin set to complete her next task: untangle herself from her comforter and sheets. It was a daily routine she had grown accustomed to and wasn't sure what life would be like without it. Finally, after escaping the suddenly evil clutches of her polyester and down blanket, she picked out her outfit from her limited choices of uniform compliant clothes.

"Well, I wore a light blue polo with navy pants yesterday, so today, I'll go for the white polo with khaki pants. Since the polo is practically see through I'll wear a black cami underneath it." she said to herself, picking up each item before heading down the hall and into the bathroom for a quick shower.

Rin finished her shower and quickly put her clothes on, except for the polo. She dried her hair and put on her usual make up. When she finished, she left the bathroom, shirt in hand, and went downstairs for breakfast.

"Hey mom." she said as she walked in the kitchen and her mom whizzed past her already packing for her trip.

"Hey hun. Have you seen my coat?"

"Um, is it hanging up in the closet?" She asked her mother who immediately went to the closet and found it. "Well, well, I guess it does pay for you to constantly hound me about putting my coat in there." Rin said when her mother walked back in the kitchen.

"I guess so. Have you seen your father? Honestly, we're leaving for our anniversary and he's probably upstairs still sleeping. I woke him up before I came down here…" Rin had stopped listening to her mother when she started to repeat herself. She had gotten up and poured herself some cereal before she interrupted her mom. "…and why would he suggest even going if he's not going to wake up. I'll tell you he-"

"Mom, what time are you even planning on leaving anyway?"

"Twelve thirty. Why?"

"Its only quarter after seven."

"Yeah, and?" her mother asked while running through the house, looking for anything she may have missed.

"Never mind." Rin said in between bites of cereal. "Uh, mom, are you sure you're going to need all that?" she asked as her mother put what looked like whatever she could find into her suitcase.

"You never know, but I'm going to be prepared if the need comes."

"Uh huh. Oh, look at the time, I still need to put my shoes on and other stuff." Rin said using it as an excuse to get out of the kitchen.

"Okay. Oh yeah, your father and I are going to be gone before you get home later."

"I know." Rin yelled from her spot in the family room.

"I left money for you somewhere."

"Okay." she yelled again before getting off the couch and going back so she could talk to her mother without yelling through the house.

"You can invite the girls over too."

"One step ahead of you." she said turning around and going upstairs to get her book bag.

"The boys can come over too, they just have to leave by eleven o'clock each night." her mother yelled up the stairs.

"Okay." Rin yelled back.

In her room, Rin picked up her book bag from the foot of her bed and picked out a zip up sweater from her closet. She couldn't help but get the feeling that she was being watched by someone. She slowly turned around to look out her window. From what she could see, no one was outside and most definitely no one was looking in her window. Laughing at herself, Rin picked up her book bag and looked out her window. Outside in her neighbor's tree, she saw a rope hanging from one of the branches. Immediately, her mind went back to the song that had freaked her out so much yesterday.

Tie me up with sheets

And hang me from your tree

I'll stay out here all night

It doesn't even matter.

"Okay, I'm being ridiculous, the rope is from their tire swing, which broke a few weeks ago. But still." Rin shook her head to get out all her bad thoughts. "I've got to go now."

Rin ran down the stairs and rushed to her mom. "Bye, I've got to go. Love you, tell dad I said bye. Have fun." she ran out of her house and straight to her car. She opened the back door and threw her things on the backseat. She quickly shut the door and got in the driver's seat. She started her car and pulled out of the drive way. At a stop sign, she called Kagome to let her know to be ready in five minutes. When she got to Kagome's house, she honked the horn and Kagome ran outside and did the same thing Rin had, just on the other side of the car.

"So, how was your night?" Kagome asked as Rin backed out of the drive way.

"Oh, you know. Its always the same the night before my parents leave to celebrate something. The only difference is I'm not going so I wasn't pulled into all the craziness."

"I feel bad for your dad. Every year he has to go through that. Sometimes I wonder how my mom and your mom are sisters."

"Man, we have some messed up family members." Rin said as she turned into the school's parking lot.

"Big time." Kagome said. "Hey, there's a spot."

Rin quickly turned turned her steering wheel and pulled into the spot. She and Kagome both got out of the car and got their things from the backseat before saying anything.

"Ready?" Kagome asked as she started walking.

"Uh, yeah." Rin said, suddenly feeling uneasy at Kagome's simple question.

--------

The school day went by uneventful and boring. All Rin wanted to do was go home and spend her weekend with her friends doing the things that their parents considered true wastes of time. Finally, the last bell of the day rang and Rin went to her locker to get what she needed over the weekend, not that she'd be doing any homework though. Homework was strictly for homeroom and lunch.

Rin picked up her book bag and went to find Sesshomaru before getting Kagome. As usual, she found him leaning against the lockers waiting for Inuyasha and Kagome to finish up their goodbyes, not like they weren't going to see each other in a few hours anyway.

"I guess this means we have about twenty minutes before we can leave." Rin said as she walked up to Sesshomaru.

"At the very least." he answered wrapping his arm around Rin.

"Alright, hurry up you hooligans, I have some very important matters to attend to." Rin said after a few minutes passed.

"Fine, fine, we're done." Inuyasha said rolling his eyes.

"Sorry about her, she's excited about tonight is all. Her parent's always tell her they know she's not going to do what she doesn't want to do but yet, they still don't trust her. Finally, they trust her with staying alive for the weekend with just her friends."

"Well, I guess I can see why your in such a hurry." Inuyasha said to Rin.

"Uh huh, can we go now?" Rin asked Kagome who nodded. "Great!" she said and grabbed Sesshomaru's hand.

--------

Outside, Rin and Sesshomaru were saying their goodbyes as Inuyasha and Kagome waited in the cars.

"Come on Rin, you have important matters to attend to!" Kagome yelled while practically laying on the horn of Rin's car.

"Sess, let's go! Some of us need to get home and prepare for tonight's festivities." Inuyasha yelled while hanging out of the car's window.

Rin giggled. "You think they'd give us some time after we waited for them in the school."

"You'd think that, wouldn't you." Sesshomaru said with a smirk.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later." Rin said pecking Sesshomaru on the cheek.

"Bye." Sesshomaru said as he walked toward his car about three spots down.

"Rin got in her car and backed out of her parking spot thankful that her marvelous cousin, Kagome, had started it before and she could just get in and leave." Kagome narrated as Rin did what she said.

"You're such a dweeb." Rin said and she started the drive to Kagome's house.

"True, true." Kagome said nodding her head. "All I have to do is bring my bag in, get changed, and grab my other bag with all my stuff for the weekend." Kagome said as Rin pulled into her driveway.

"That's actually very responsible of you." Rin joked as Kagome got her stuff from the back seat.

"Its not something I'm proud of so don't tell anyone." Kagome said seriously before laughing about her own joke. She ran in her house and came out almost as soon as she went in.

She threw her new bag in the back seat and jumped into the front seat. "And we're off!" she yelled while pointing to the sky.

"And you've lost it." Rin said with the same enthusiasm. "You've cracked, there's no hope for your sanity."

"Yep, and you're stuck with me and two other equally as crazy girls along with a few other chaps for three days.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Rin asked herself as she drove to her house.

Ten minutes later, Rin and Kagome were in Rin's bedroom. Kagome was on the bed trying to find pattern in the ceiling as Rin was digging through her closet looking for anything that they could possibly do later.;

"Hey, Kag, help me get this game."

"I'm in the middle of something." Kagome complained but got up to help anyway. "Which one?"

"The one on the bottom. Here, hold the games on top so they won't fall."

Kagome reached up to hold the games as Rin pulled out the bottom one.

"I almost got it." Rin said more to herself than Kagome. "Got it!" she said when it was off the shelf and in her hands.

"Fantastic." Kagome said letting go of the other games. "Let's go downstairs, everyone should be here soon she said walking out of the closet with the intention of going to the living room.

"Sounds good." Rin said as she hurried after Kagome.

Soon, Sango and Ayame were walking through the doorway with movies and junk food in their arms.

"You guys should go to my car and get the rest of our stuff out." Ayame said tilting her head in the direction of her car. "Its unlocked." she said as she went to the kitchen to empty her arms of the food she brought.

"Because they can't take second trips out." Rin whispered to Kagome with mock annoyance.

The girls came back in the house with sleeping bags, pillows, and oversized purses. They found Sango and Ayame on the couch flipping through the channels.

"That'll be fifteen hundred dollars." Rin said with her hand out.

"Uh, hold on a sec." Ayame said as she and Sango turned toward each other to put what was in their pockets together.

"How about thirteen dollars and a Slim Jim?" Sango asked with the money and snack held out.

"You can keep your money." Kagome said. "But we will take the Slim Jim."

"Well then, if that's what you want." Sango said shrugging.

"It is." Rin said taking the food item. "Come Kag, lets cut it before the guys come and take it."

"They'll eat anything processed." Kagome said running into the kitchen to get a knife.

"So, we still got thirteen dollars." Ayame said looking at the money in Sango's hand.

Sango got a devilish smirk on her face. "To to convenient store!" she shouted turning to run out the door.

"Rin, Kag, we're going to blow our money on more junk!" Ayame yelled into the kitchen causing the two in there to run out with half a Slim Jim in a hand.

"We're coming too." Kagome said before she and Rin ran past Sango and Ayame and out the front door soon followed out by the two girls.

"Ayame's driving!" Sango yelled jumping into the back seat or Ayame's car.

"Fine by me." she yelled back getting into her car and starting it up.

"I'm sitting with Sango!" Rin yelled forcing Kagome to sit in the front.

"Whatever, people in the front have control of the radio." Kagome said getting in the car and immediately plugging her iPod into Ayame's converter.

------------

In the store, the girls scattered and with the evenly divided thirteen dollars. Each was equipped with three dollars and twenty-five cents to spend how ever she wanted and high expectations. Ten minutes later, each had paid and were on their way back to Rin's house.

"I bet the guys are already on the couch watching TV." Sango said as Ayame turned onto the street Rin's house was on.

"And they're eating our food," Ayame added, "why did we leave it all on the coffee table?"

"Obviously, you wanted to pay us that Slim Jim so bad, you forgot all about it." Rin said shrugging.

Sure enough, in Rin's driveway, was Sesshomaru's car. Ayame parked alongside it and got out. As predicted, all the guys were on the couch, feet propped up on something, each eating from a different bag.

"This is going to be a long weekend." Rin said to herself as Kagome, Sango, and Ayame each made a spot for themselves either on the couch or on their boyfriend and started to fight with them for the right to hold the bag.

Rin sat down on the arm of the couch by Sesshomaru. He looked at her and smirked. "Ready?" he asked.

Rin's eyes got wide with shock. "Uh, yeah." she answered the same way she had when Kagome asked her that question.

* * *

There's chapter 2, let me know what you think.

And I promise, its going to start getting good within the next two chapters.


	3. Chapter 3

The first night went by as expected. There was a lot of junk food, tons of movies, plenty of games, a few bets, and minimal sleeping until early the next morning.

_Saturday, January 17_

Kagome was the first to wake up and quietly made her way to the bathroom upstairs for a shower. She finished uninterrupted and went back downstairs to wake up Inuyasha so he could also have the advantage she had. Once he finished, everyone else was awake and ready to race for the bathroom. Sango had won the race, but Rin had another idea. Smiling to herself, she walked a few feet further down the hall and into her parent's bedroom.

'They're not here, so why let their bathroom go to waste?' she asked herself as she started the shower in the master bathroom. "You thought you won, Sango, but I live here and know some secrets." she yelled to Sango, who was in the other bathroom that was separated by a wall.

Rin heard Sango laughing on the other side of the wall. "Yeah, but I can get out of here before you can get out of there." she challenged.

"Uh, huh, we'll see." Rin answered as checked inside the shower to make sure everything she needed was already in there. She noticed that the shampoo was missing and turned around to get another bottle from the closet. As she walked past the window, she saw something move in her backyard. Stopping what she was doing, she looked out of the window and into the trees that separated her backyard from her neighbors. She shook her head and laughed at herself after seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

'Oh man, I'm being ridiculous again, first a stupid broken tire swing and now a deer or something. I'm such a wimp.' she thought as she reached for the shampoo.

She walked past the window again, surprised to see snow falling. "I don't remember hearing anything about snow." she mumbled to herself. "Hey, Sango, maybe later we can dig out some sleds and find a good hill." she yelled to Sango not really expecting an answer.

Fifteen minutes later, Rin was walking out of her parent's bedroom. She didn't hear the shower in the other bathroom, so she knew Sango had beaten her out.

"Okay, Sango, you won." Rin said as she entered the kitchen to see everyone eating breakfast at a time more suitable for lunch. Each was sitting on a stool around the island.

"You know it." Sango said with a mouthful of left over pizza.

"And because of you two, Inuyasha, and Kagome, there isn't any hot water left for the rest of us." Ayame said.

Rin smiled. "That's the whole point. The four of us who did manage to shower secretly planned with each other while the rest of you were sleeping. Although, you can go for a nice cold shower now."

"I think I'll pass, but thank for so much for the offer, dear friend." Miroku said before laughing at his own corniness.

Not to be outdone, Kagome took Rin's hand and bowed slightly. "And I must thank you, dear cousin, for allowing me to have the first hot shower.

"Its not a problem in the least." Rin said patting Kagome's head with her free hand.

"That's how you thank someone, Miroku." Kagome said to Miroku.

"Suck up." Miroku said.

Rin laughed at the display. "You're both wonderful people with wonderful thanking skills. Besides, we go over this every time you guys are over at the same time."

"You know what, I think I'm going to go home to take a shower instead of waiting." Koga said suddenly. "I don't want to be like that." he whispered to Ayame and Sesshomaru.

"You get used to it." Sesshomaru whispered back. "It takes longer for some people depending on your exposure and dosage to them."

"Yeah, look at me," Ayame standing up and placing her hips, "My immunity has been built up from years of exposure."

Koga chuckled. "That's fine, I'm still not waiting for the water though. I'll walk the three blocks to my house and be back before you guys are done with your showers," he said while putting on his jacket and walking outside.

"You know, he has a point." Ayame said. "I'm going to do what he's doing, good thing I drove." she ran to her bag and fished out her keys. "Hey, Rin, I'm going home to shower. Koga did too, we'll be back soon."

"That's cool I guess." Rin answered. "Hey Sess, its been a few minutes, check and see if the hot water's back."

"If its not, I'm following Koga's lead, which may be a dumb thing to do, but I'm desperate."

"I think its back." Kagome said.

"I hope its back," Inuyasha said from his stool at the island in the kitchen. "You need that shower bad." he said covering his nose and smirk with his hand.

"It wouldn't be gone if you hadn't used most of it on yourself, Mr. Shower Sing Along."

"I may sing in the shower, but at least I sing good songs in the shower." Inuyasha retorted.

"They actually are good songs." Sesshomaru said making small talk.

"Yeah, most of the time, I hear you singing them while you lock yourself in your room with the music blaring." Inuyasha said.

"Oh, that's good, I'm going to go shower and possibly sing some good songs in there now."

"Yeah, knock those shower supplies dead." Miroku cheered when Sesshomaru went upstairs.

Soon, everyone was back in the living room trying to decide what to do. Ayame and Koga had come back and said it was snowing pretty bad so going anywhere was out of the question.

"We can go outside and do something constructive, like build a snowman." Sango suggested.

"I wouldn't." Koga said. "If Ayame hadn't been passing my house before I came back, I probably would have stayed there until the snow stopped."

"And its really hard to see. I don't think I drove any faster than 15 mph. I was able to see about 10 feet in front of my car. It wasn't very pleasant."

"That's okay, we can do something inside." Rin said. "We still have a few movies to watch, there's a few video games in the TV stand, I have board games in my closet."

"Eh, let's just watch some movies until the snow stops." Inuyasha said digging through one of his bags only to take out another bag. "Besides, I brought a lot of movies." he said dumping the second bag of DVDs on the coffee table.

"We can be here for a while and not watch the same movie twice." Miroku said. "What, did you bring your whole collection with you?"

"Nope, just his horror movies." Sesshomaru said as he looked through the cases.

Inuyasha picked up a case and showed it to his brother. "What would this be?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, he brought one comedy with him." Sesshomaru said taking the case from his brother's hand. "And it's a terrible one at that."

"That's okay, I just brought it to leave it here and never have to see it again." Inuyasha said shrugging. "I wish I never bought that awful movie."

Rin looked at the case. "So you planned on leaving it at my house so its out of your sight and mind?"

"Hmm, basically." Inuyasha answered nodding.

"Fine, I don't care. Maybe I can give it away later."

"Let's just watch a movie or two and wait for the snow to stop, you've all talked enough for a few hours." Sango said. "Hey, Ayame, pick the movie."

"Gotcha." Ayame said as she picked up a random case and put the DVD into the player without looking at the name of the movie.

An hour and a half later, the movie was over leaving a few of the watchers feeling sick.

"Oh my god, Ayame, that was a horrible choice." Rin said. "Did you see how many, yuck." she said not finishing her sentence.

"Its not my fault, blame Inu for bringing such gory movies." Ayame defended.

Rin looked at Inuyasha. "Ew." she said with a disgusted face. "How can you watch that?"

"I thought it was pretty good." Sesshomaru said from his spot next to Rin.

"Yeah, me too." Sango said.

"It wasn't so bad." Koga added.

"Maybe you two need another movie similar to that one." Inuyasha said as he looked through his movies that were still on the table. "After all, you're the only ones that didn't like it."

"Uh, no. I'm freaked out by all the gross things and whatnot from that last one." Ayame said.

"Yeah, me too." Rin agreed. "Why don't you just go for some crazy 1970's scary movie? They're always good for a laugh."

"Oh, good idea." Kagome said. "We can watch the original then watch the remake of it." she said kneeling down to the coffee table to help her boyfriend pick out the two movies.

"Whatever." Ayame said, "I think I'm going to fall asleep during it anyway."

The couple picked out which movies would be the best and put the original version in first. A few minutes after it started, someone knocked on the front door. Rin got up without saying anything to answer it. She turned on the porch light and looked out the peephole.

"Hmm, that's weird." she said when she couldn't see anything outside but white. Rin opened the door and saw snow about a foot high in her front yard and some on the covered porch. She looked at the outside part of the peephole and saw that snow covered it. After wiping it off, she noticed that there were no foot prints in the snow, on the porch or, in the yard. "That's weird." she said before closing the door and walking back to the living room.

"What was that?" Kagome asked as Rin sat down.

"I don't know. Did anyone else hear someone knock at the door?" she asked.

Everyone shook their heads and a few answered with 'nope' or 'no'.

"Maybe I'm hearing things." she said more to herself for reassurance. 'That was weird. I could have sworn I heard knocking. But wouldn't I see foot prints in all that snow?' she thought.

Half way through the movie, Rin heard someone knocking at the back door. "Did anyone hear that?" she asked but didn't receive a single yes.

Rin got up and walked to the kitchen. All the lights were off, that wasn't good for her. It was dark outside and in the kitchen. The only thing separating her from the dark outside was a sliding glass door. "Just great." she mumbled to herself as she ran her hand along the wall in the kitchen hoping to find the light switch without going into the kitchen. When she found it, she walked into the kitchen and slowly walked toward the door, keeping a large distance between herself and the glass.

This was one of her worst fears, being in a lighted room, but not able to see outside at what could be out there. Slowly, she made her way to the other light switch by the door to turn on the light. When she made it, she flipped the switch up and prepared for the worst: not being in control of what was out there. She held her breath as she scanned the whole yard. Nothing was out there again, not even in the back by the trees. No paw prints and no foot prints. She continued to look for a while until Sesshomaru came into the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around her and looked out the glass to try to find what had kept Rin in there for ten minutes.

Relief washed over Rin as she realized she was not alone in the kitchen anymore. "Oh, um, just looking at all the snow." she said before getting out of his grasp and walking over to the pull string on the blinds. "I'm going to close the blinds though, so perverts can't look into my house at night." she said hoping she sounded like she was joking. "Come on, I'm sure the movies almost over."

"Yeah, you missed almost all of it." he said as he put his arm around her shoulder and walked back to the living room.

The pair made it back to the room just as Inuyasha was putting in the new version of the movie they had just watched in the player. "About time." he said to himself.

Rin rolled her eyes. "Just put the movie in."

When the movie was over, Rin looked around the room. Everyone except for her and Sesshomaru had fallen asleep. She got up to turn off the player and changed the channel to the station that always had the weather on.

"Aw, man, more snow." she said from her spot on the floor.

"Its not so bad," Sesshomaru said from the couch, " we get to be snowed in together with a bunch of friends. Its practically a horror movie in the making."

"And that's a good thing?" she asked as she walked back to the couch.

Sesshomaru laughed. "I guess not, but if anything happens, I'll have it under control." he said with confidence.

"That's good." Rin said . 'If I lose control, he'll be there to pick up the slack.' she thought as she fell asleep.

Sometime during the night, Rin was woken up by the sound of something falling upstairs. She jumped and hit her head on Sesshomaru's shoulder, waking him up also.

"Ouch." she mumbled to herself as she stood up to see what had fallen.

"What are you doing now?" Sesshomaru asked without opening his eyes.

Rin shrugged and wrapped her arms around herself. "I heard something fall upstairs, I'm going to go check it out. Want to come?"

"Sure." he said and followed Rin to the stairs.

She fumbled around for the light switch when she finally found it, she took Sesshomaru's hand. "Ready?" she asked stepping onto the first step getting nervous.

Sesshomaru laughed at her uneasiness. "You make it sound like you're walking to your death."

"Shut up, I just want to find what fell and clean up the mess it probably made."

Upstairs, Rin looked down the hallway, all the doors looked like they were shut, but she felt a cold breeze. Gripping Sesshomaru's hand tighter, she walked through the hallway to find what she assumed the source of the cold air was, but the window at the end of the hall was shut and locked

"That's weird." she whispered. "I wonder where its coming from." she said to Sesshomaru.

He looked at the doors. "You're parent's bedroom door isn't shut all the way, you think one of their windows is open?"

Rin chewed on the inside of her cheek and looked at the door. "I don't remember any windows being open when I was in there earlier, but we could check it out." she said as she stuck her arm in the room feeling around for the light switch. When she couldn't find it immediately, she scooted further into the room, reassured by her hand in Sesshomaru's. "Finally." she muttered once she found the switch and the room light up.

"About time." Sesshomaru teased. "I thought we were going to be standing in that hallway for an hour."

"Har har." Rin said as she let go of his hand and checked out one of the windows. "This one is shut, how about that one?" she asked pointing to the window by Sesshomaru.

"Its shut and locked." he answered.

Rin shivered. "It is a lot colder in here though."

"Is there a window in that bathroom?" Sesshomaru asked pointing at the open door that led to the connected bathroom.

"I don't think so, it was shut when I was in there earlier." Rin said thinking about earlier. "I know it was shut, I was looking out it at something in the yard."

"I'll check then." Sesshomaru walked to the door and turned on the light as he walked in the room. "You sure about it being shut, babe?" he asked from the bathroom.

"Positive." she answered and walked into behind him. She looked at the window and saw that it and the screen were pushed all the way up. "It was closed earlier, I know, I wouldn't be able to take a shower and come out without noticing how cold it was."

"Maybe someone opened it earlier." Sesshomaru said as he pushed down on the window. "Does this always get stuck?" he asked after he tried to push it down but it wouldn't budge.

"I don't think its ever done that." Rin said as she tried to close it. "That's really weird."

"Just put something over it for now." Sesshomaru said, "We can try to shut it again in the morning."

"Alright." Rin agreed as she went into her parents' room and came back with a spare blanket. She tucked one end of it over the curtain rod and made sure the window was covered the best it could be. "Let's go." she said when she finished. They walked out of the bathroom and shut the door.

"I still don't know what fell." Rin said as she and Sesshomaru walked out of the bedroom, shutting the door.

"Maybe the wind knocked something over in the bathroom."

"Hmm." she hummed as they reached the steps.

Downstairs, it was as if the two had never left the room. They sat in their abandoned spots and fell asleep for the rest of the night. The thought of the crashing noise and the mysteriously open window put on the backburner for at least a few hours.

* * *

Thanks for reading, let me now what you think.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sunday, January 18_

_8:30 AM_

The day started early and on a bad note for Rin. Just as she was stirring from her sleep, she heard a crashing noise followed by another a few seconds later.

"Just great, something's bound to be broken this time." she mumbled to herself as she walked up the stairs. Passing the clock on the wall next to the coat closet, she took a quick look at the time. 'Eight thirty in the morning. At least its not dark this time.' she thought as she made her way up the steps.

At the top of the stairs, she looked around. Across the hall and slightly to the right, her bedroom door was shut, just like she had left it the other day. Without wasting much time, she went to the last door on the left side of the hall, her parents' bedroom. She looked at the door and saw that it was firmly shut. Just to make sure, she pulled and pushed on the door knob without turning it. As she thought, the door didn't moved with her pushes but did not open.

Sighing, she turned the knob and walked into the bedroom. The room felt warmer than it had last night so she didn't waste time on the windows in the room. Instead, she went right for the bathroom door. Expecting to see the blanket she put over the window to be blowing in the wind, she was surprised to see the blanket was missing and the window was shut.

"What?" she asked herself as she checked out the window. It was locked, but she couldn't find the blanket anywhere in the bathroom. She was so caught up in finding the blanket that she didn't notice someone had come into the bathroom with her.

"Still looking for things that go bump in the night?' Sesshomaru asked from his leaning position against the sink.

"No, I'm looking for things that go bump in the morning." Rin replied with a smile. "I could have sworn I heard two crashes this morning, but I can't find anything that broke or fell. The blanket isn't over the window either."

Sesshomaru glanced around the room and saw that the blanket wasn't even in the room anymore. "Maybe someone used the bathroom last night, took the blanket down, and somehow managed to shut the window."

"Yeah, maybe they put it back in the main room." Rin said accepting Sesshomaru's explanation for the window. "But, what about the crashes? You can't say you didn't hear them."

"I heard something this time, saw you were gone, and knew you would be up here investigating. Call it a hunch, but I think you're paranoid about something."

Rin shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't think the knocking bothered me much last night, but I think that and the window stuff freaked me out more than I thought it did. You know?"

"Yeah. Come on, let's go downstairs and forget about all this." he answered taking her hand to led her back downstairs.

As they were walking down the hallway, Rin decided it would be best to tell him how nervous she really was. "Hey, Sess, I know this might sound stupid, but for the past few days, it felt like something was watching me. Its really weird, it all started when Kagome played a song and I came up with a messed up interpretation of it. Its stupid, but when ever I look at certain things, I'm reminded of the song and get the feeling that someone can see me but I can't see them." she sighed as she finished. '…and I feel like no matter what I do, I feel like I won't have control.' she added to herself.

Sesshomaru was quiet until they reached the last step. "That's fine. Like I said, your probably just paranoid about it. Don't worry too much and forget about it."

"Its worth a shot." she shrugged.

"Hey, guys, we decided it is time for Rin to display her hosting skills." Sango said when the couple entered the kitchen.

"Yeah, welcome to Café de Rin." Koga said with his arms open.

Rin looked at each face. "You sure about that?" she asked.

"Would we name the hotel restaurant after you if we weren't?" Inuyasha answered with a question of his own.

"Fine, Café de Rin only serves microwave popcorn, canned soup, and of course, cold cereal."

"What's the special of the day?" Koga asked with a serious face.

Rin looked around the kitchen and spotted a box on the counter. "That would be Pop Tarts," she said holding up the box, "but only for the first two lucky customers." she finished before spilling the contents of the box onto the island all the so called patrons of the restaurant were seated at.

Quickly the two packs of Pop Tarts were swiped off the table by Koga and Sango. The rest of the people "ordered" cereal, except for Ayame, who never liked normal things for breakfast. Instead, she had the soup.

Within twenty minutes, every one had eaten breakfast and decided to go outside to relive some childhood memories.

"Last one out is a rotten egg!" Miroku yelled as he ran out the back door.

Outside, everything was going well and everyone was having a good time. The friends were currently in the middle of a snowball fight, girls verses boys and the girls were winning. The girls had all dug a trench in the snow to fully cover them when the guys tried to breach their defenses. Shelves were carved into the wall of the trench and stocked with snowballs. The guys, on the other hand, were less prepared. They built a simple wall to surround them and made snowballs when they were needed. It was pretty easy to see why the girls were winning.

The war was doing good to help Rin forget about the strange things that had been happening around her lately until she wandered towards the wooded area in her back yard to get fresh snow. As she was bending over to pick up a handful of snow, something caught her eye. In the snow, footprints lead toward the edge of the trees and stopped before a second set led back into the woods.

"Uh, Sess, mind coming here for a second?" she yelled to Sesshomaru, who was across the yard.

Sesshomaru looked at his teammates. "Should I go?" he asked.

"I don't know, it could be a trap." Koga cautioned.

"Yeah, it seems a little weird." Inuyasha added.

Miroku spoke up with a conspiracy theory. "Maybe the girls want to take out each of us one by one, until there's none left. First Rin, will call you," he said looking at Sesshomaru, "then Ayame will call Koga. Then, we'd loose our distance throwers and only have the power throwers left. Until Kag and Sango manage to get Inu and me."

"Uh, that makes some sense actually." Sesshomaru said staying in his spot.

On the other side of the yard, Rin hardly moved from her spot. Her eyes were focused on the tracks and nothing else. "Please." she called out to Sesshomaru when he did not come with panic in her voice.

"Maybe it isn't a trap." he said standing up.

Obviously the other girls had noticed the tone Rin's voice had taken when she called for Sesshomaru. He expected them to get some cheap shots at him when he walked past their fort, but made it to Rin completely unscathed.

"What's the problem?" he asked when he was close to Rin.

"Were you or any of the guys back here at all?" she questioned with her eyes still on the footprints.

Sesshomaru thought for a few seconds. "No, none of us have been outside before now. Why?"

"Some one has been coming here, I think." she answered not so sure of what was happening anymore.

"Maybe it was your neighbor looking for their dog again." Sesshomaru said remembering the countless times he and Rin had helped the people on the other side of the trees to catch their dog.

Rin shook her head. "There's no paw prints." she whispered. She turned and looked at Sesshomaru in the eyes. "Did I tell you about the person, or something, I saw in the yard yesterday?"

"No." he said looking over his shoulder to make sure the others were not listening to this part of the conversation. Luckily the snowball fight had resumed without the two and no one was paying any attention to him and Rin. "What's going on?"

Rin sighed and sat in the snow. "I'm not sure. Yesterday when I was in my parent's bathroom getting ready to take a shower, I had to get something out of the closet. When I walked past the window, which was closed at the time, I saw something move and run back into the woods. I know it wasn't a deer or any kind of animal like that." Rin let out a breathy laugh. "I'm starting to think it's a person stalking one or all of us. The loud crashes and the window aren't making things any better either. You probably think I'm crazy right about now. Don't you?"

Sesshomaru did not say anything for awhile. Like Rin, he sighed and sat down in the snow before talking. "I think you're just overreacting. Someone was probably walking around back there and ended up in your yard before turning around." he answered, not ready to accept Rin's paranoid thoughts

Rin smiled and let out another laugh, "You've always been the rational one I guess." She sighed again and stood up, "Well, I'm going in. All this thinking is starting to freak me out again."

Sesshomaru smirked and stood up as well. "I think its time you got your mind off this. How about we leave them outside and spend some of the time you led me to believe we'd have together?"

Sess, I'm really starting to get scared." she answered with tears stinging the corners of her eyes.

"Nothing is going to happen, I pr-" Sesshomaru started to say.

"Don't promise, that's what usually happens before everyone's hacked to pieces one by one." Rin said trying to lighten up her own mood.

Sesshomaru smiled at her and took her hand. "Come on, let's get the others and go in."

* * *

_9:45 AM_

"So, we've got a few movies left, and a ton of video games." Kagome said as she rummaged through the piles of plastic cases.

"Oh my god, no more scary movies." Ayame said to Rin's relief.

Koga looked at his girlfriend. "Why not, getting scared of outrageously fake Hollywood cinematography?"

"Uh, yeah, something like that." Ayame said rolling her eyes.

"Well, I agree with her," Rin said, "there's only a certain number of times I can watch people die before the death scenes start repeating."

"Okay then, what do you have here that isn't scary?" Miroku asked going over to the case of Rin's movies.

"Nothing interesting to all of us." Rin answered.

"Nonsense." Sesshomaru said before going over to help Miroku pick out a movie. "How about this?" he asked holding up a case to a VHS that looked like it had seen better days.

"Yeah," Sango said, "you can't beat the classics."

"Seriously?" Inuyasha asked eyeing the case.

"Yep." Rin said as she took the case from Sesshomaru to put it in the VCR. She sat down in front of the television and pushed the button to turn it on. "The cord must have fallen out." she mumbled to herself. "Hey, Koga, want to check the plug of the TV for me?"

Koga looked behind the television. "Its plugged in." he said.

"Typical, cliché murderer." Rin whispered. "How about we play a nice game, perhaps connect four," she asked, "or we can go to the movies and see something."

"Nonsense," Kagome said as she tried to turn on the lights, "uh, Rin, did your light bulbs burn out last night?"

"No." she answered. "Come on, Sess, I need you to help me with the fuse box."

Down stairs in the basement, Rin was angrily making her way toward the fuse box mumbling about how annoyed she was getting with everything going on. She kicked box after box out of her way, making a generously sized, yet unneeded path to the fuse box.

"Rin, are you okay?" Sesshomaru asked once Rin finally stopped walking and started to open the box.

"Yeah, I'm perfectly fine." she said distractedly while sniffling.

"I think you're lying to me." Sesshomaru said bluntly.

Rin started to quietly laugh. "Of course I'm lying to you! I'm an absolute mess and everything that happened in those movies we watched last night is happening now!" by now, she was hysterical and sobbing. "You think everything is happening on coincidence and I feel like I'm going crazy!"

"What if I told you I'm starting to think you're right?" he asked trying to calm her down.

"Then I'd know _you're_ lying me." she whispered as she fiddled with fuses. "Forget it. I knew I couldn't do this, I need you to help me. That is, if you don't think the light bulbs are burnt out instead." she said as she sat down on the bottom step to calm herself before going back upstairs.

Sesshomaru sighed trying to keep his own anger in check. Sure, he loved Rin, but hearing her yell at him about how he doesn't believe in her started to tick him off. He counted to ten before he walked past Rin and focused on the box. After a few seconds, they heard cheers of approval from upstairs meaning that the television was working once again.

"Ready to go back up?" Sesshomaru asked quietly offering Rin his hand.

Rin sniffled again and shook her head. "Give me a minute."

Sesshomaru sat down next to Rin on the step and put his arm around her shoulder while she wiped her tears away with the back of her hand. She started to laugh and looked at Sesshomaru.

"Now I probably have eyeliner all down my face."

"I wouldn't doubt it. But maybe you can make it a new trend."

"Very funny. Ready now?" Rin asked standing up and straightening out her shirt.

"Yep." Sesshomaru answered also standing up and taking Rin's hand.

"Sorry about that outburst," Rin giggled, "it just felt really good to get that off my chest even if you had to experience the full force of my anger alone."

"Don't worry about it."

They got to the top of the stairs and noticed the door was shut.

"I don't remember closing this." Rin said turning the handle and pushing. The door swung open to reveal the bright hallway and kitchen.

"Probably one of the guys thinking they're funny." Sesshomaru answered. "Oh, and Rin, when I said I'm starting to believe you, I did mean it."

"Sesshomaru, please don't." Rin practically begged.

"I do believe some things, like the person in your yard, but other things I need a little more convincing on." he clarified.

Rin sighed. "I guess that's better than nothing." she reasoned. "I just really hope nothing convinces you though." she said as they walked out of the basement and into the hallway. "Hey, um, I'm gonna go get a drink. Want anything?" Rin asked.

"Sure, I'll have what you're having." Sesshomaru answered. "Want me to come with you?"

"Nope, I've got this under control." she yelled from the kitchen.

A few seconds later, Rin walked into the living room with two bottles of water. She handed one to Sesshomaru and noticed they were alone.

"Where'd everyone go?" Sesshomaru asked before Rin could.

"I don't know." Rin whispered, even though it wasn't necessary.

Sesshomaru chuckled. "Probably ran when they closed the door."

"Maybe."

"Come on you asses, we're out of the basement." Sesshomaru yelled.

A few seconds passed and they didn't get an answer. "Um, Sess, what's going on?" Rin asked with tears already in her eyes just before all the lights in the house flickered and the light bulbs shattered.

Out of frustration and fear, Rin screamed and fell to the floor in a crying mass. She felt all the control she had leave her body. Instantly, she knew that whatever happened in her life now was all under the control of who ever was doing this.

In the midst of all this, Sesshomaru stood still. He did not need anymore convincing. Something was happening and whatever it was, was not good. He quickly knelt down and wrapped Rin in his arms. He did everything he could think of to calm Rin, but he was finding it difficult since he also needed to be calmed. Anger clouded his rational thought and he started formulating plans. Whoever was doing this was going to pay.

Just as Rin started to calm down enough to breath normally, she looked at Sesshomaru. She tried to put on her best brave face, but even in the dark, she knew it was very unconvincing.

"We're gonna do this." she said quietly but with all the determination she did not even knew she had anymore.

Sesshomaru's anger started to dissipate when he heard Rin. "Yeah, but how is it so dark in here, its only ten in the morning."

"We're probably blockaded in. How un original." she laughed.

"Yeah, how unoriginal." he agreed also laughing.

The two sat in the dark laughing. Both knew that they were laughing out of nervousness but did not say anything to the other. A few minutes passed before they heard one of their friends.

"Rin? Sesshomaru?" the frantic voice of one of the girls yelled from upstairs.


	5. Chapter 5

Rin sucked in air until her lungs could not hold anymore and slowly let it out. She started shaking and her eyes burned with tears. Unsure of what to do, Sesshomaru wrapped his arm around Rin and pulled her close to him. Her breakdown was short lived and soon Rin found herself laughing.

"Found them," she said walking toward the stairs, "they probably heard me before we went to the basement and decided to play a joke on us…well me…jackasses."

Sesshomaru looked at Rin confused. One minute she was falling apart and the next she was laughing at herself for it. He stood up and walked behind her to the stairs. "Are you okay, Rin?" he asked concerned.

Rin turned around and gave a huge smile, her eyes still gleaming with tears. "Absolutely." she answered simply before turning her attention to the occupants of the second floor. "Come on down now. You're all hilarious and oh so clever." she said the last part mockingly.

Within seconds, six teenagers where making their way downstairs with looks of victory plastered on their faces. They each passed Rin, who was standing on the bottom step with her arms folded across her chest, and looked smugly at her. Everyone filed into the living room and waited for an anger eruption courtesy of Rin.

Rin stayed in the front of the room while everyone else, except Sesshomaru, who stood a little behind Rin, sat on the couch and waited for a verbal lashing.

"Congratulations guys. You really had me there. Hell, I was even crying for a second there," she said with a chuckle, "I never really did understand your pranks, or how you managed to do them. So, did half of you pile snow in front of the windows and stuff in front while the rest went upstairs and waited. I honestly have no idea how you guys did that so fast or how you managed to blow fuses with out me noticing anyone plugging in anything out of the ordinary." she said smiling. "Oh man, and when one of you screamed, that's when I really lost it. I thought someone was in the house and took you all away to kill you. Was I wrong or what?" she finished smiling.

Everyone on the couch looked at Rin in shock.

"Um, Rin, honey, none of us did any of that except hide upstairs and yell for you." Kagome said.

"Yeah, right. And don't call me honey." she answered not believing Kagome. "How about we go and dig out the house now?" she asked, putting her coat on.

"Uh, sure." Koga answered for everyone.

Sango got up and walked to the closet. "Just let us get our coats and stuff, we'll meet you out there."

Rin smiled at the group and walked outside. Once she was outside, everyone in the room looked at Sesshomaru. They all had the same questioning stare, but no one voiced the question that was burning in everyone's mind.

Sesshomaru sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "I have no idea, but something has really got her spooked," he said, "she thinks she's going insane and she is relating everything that happens to a song. I guess she thinks that someone is stalking her or us also. She's broken down twice in about fifteen minutes and she isn't thinking very rationally because of it."

"And we probably just made this a hundred times worse." Ayame said sinking back onto the couch.

"This sucks." Sango said sitting down next to Ayame.

Miroku looked around the room at everyone's face. "Yeah, but we've got to act like we don't know this and everything is normal. If only for Rin's already fragile sanity."

"Don't say that!" Sesshomaru yelled causing everyone in the room, except Kagome, to look at him in wonder before Rin opened the door and stepped in.

"Is everything okay in here? I'm almost done with my second window." she said smiling.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Ayame answered while eyeing Sesshomaru.

Rin's smile fell a little. "But I heard yelling."

"Oh, um," Inuyasha started, "Sango was trying to get her boot on and…"

"..yeah, and she couldn't get it, so we all tried to help her, but ended up getting in each other's way and got frustrated." Kagome finished.

Sesshomaru quickly put on his coat and walked toward Rin. "I'm ready now, I'll go help you while these guys finish getting dressed."

" Sounds good. Hurry up guys, you did this, now help clean it up." Rin said turning around.

Sesshomaru turned to look at his friends and forced a smile. "She's just confused and worried. Don't think its anything else." he said before slamming the front door.

* * *

_10:30 AM_

Half an hour later, all the windows were clear, the sidewalk had been shoveled, and a path around the house had been made. Everyone stumbled up the two stairs of the porch and began to shake the snow off their boots.

"Come on guy, I'll make us something." Rin said. She seemed to have calmed down considerably and started to act like her normal self.

"I'll help." Sango offered. Walking inside behind Rin.

The door slammed shut and the rest of the group stood outside awkwardly shifting their gazes between each other. Ayame sighed and fell back in the snow.

"I always thought I'd be the first one to have a meltdown." she said looking up at the sky.

Koga sat down beside her and took her hand in his. Kagome and Inuyasha looked at each other and shook their heads, expecting something like that to come out of Ayame's mouth.

Sesshomaru started to walk to the house but stopped before he made it to the two small steps. He turned around and looked at all his now, now all sitting in the snow.

"After this weekend, don't mention any of this to Rin. Act like you didn't notice if she brings anything up and don't bring anything up yourself. She'll be back to normal by tomorrow morning. All she needs is some time by herself. She'll feel better when her mom and dad come home later tonight too."

A mix of "okays", "alrights", and "mhm" were voiced and Sesshomaru walked in the house.

"I thought this was supposed to be a fun weekend." Miroku said.

Kagome humorlessly laughed, "It was, until she started doing this again." she said, mumbling the last part. "I'm gonna head in and see if they need any help or something."

"Let us know if there's anything we could help with." Miroku said from his now laying position in the snow.

* * *

_11 AM_

"So, Rin, how's your weekend of total responsibility going?" Sango asked while getting cheese out of the refrigerator.

Rin smiled and turned away from the cabinets she was looking in, "Great, I can't believe my parents finally started to trust me a bit more."

"Yeah, usually they have me babysit you when they go to the store and you don't go with them." Kagome teased from her sitting position on the counter.

Ayame laughed and looked at Kagome, "You, babysit? And Rin of all people."

"Hey, I got to make sure she and Sesshomaru aren't making fuzzy cream colored babies." Kagome joked.

"Yeah, because I'm the epitome of irresponsibility while being completely unable to control myself around my boyfriend." Rin said sarcastically. "It's really a tough position to fill."

"So that's why you invited all of us over," Sango said, "so you wouldn't have any alone time with Sess and Kagome would be somewhat off your back. Sounds like a smart plan, especially when locking doors and blinds where invited a while ago." she said making fun of Rin and Kagome.

"You can shut up now, Miss I never do anything with my boyfriend because my parents are always breathing down my neck." Kagome replied.

"I don't think there's much left for you and Inuyasha left to do." Sango shot back just as the guys walked in the kitchen.

Sesshomaru pivoted on his front foot and turned around mumbling something about never wanting to hear about his brother's personal life again while Inuyasha turned bright red and followed Sesshomaru out of the room. Koga and Miroku stopped in their tracks and looked at each other. The girls acted as if the guys never came into the house.

"What can I say, we're experimental." Kagome shamelessly said shrugging.

"And this is when we leave." Koga said grabbing Miroku's arm and walking out of the room.

Rin looked at Kagome, "And this is when you stop telling us stuff at all the wrong times."

Kagome shrugged again and got a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. "Its not like you guys haven't heard it all before. It did work pretty good at getting the guys out of the kitchen though."

"I think its time we stop talking about this and start making lunch," Ayame said, "I'm freakin' starving."

* * *

_6:30 PM_

The dishes had long been cleaned and there was no sign of the guys ever staying at the house for the weekend by the time Rin's parent got home in the afternoon. The banging noises had stopped and the window was moving fine again. The house seemed to be exactly the way it was before they had left. No one brought up anything the would seem odd when asked about the weekend.

Rin and her mother were in her bedroom, sharing stories from the weekend. Both were sitting on Rin's bed while her father decided to try his hand at cooking dinner.

"Oh, Rin, honey, it was absolutely wonderful, I wish you came along with us." Rin's mother gushed as she retold her weekend.

"Yeah, I kinda wish I tagged along, but I had fun with the girls."

Rin's mother repositioned herself so she was laying on her stomach and put her head in her hands, "So, what did you guys do?"

"Oh, you know, watch movies, play games, dig out the house after the snow storm, the usual."

Rin's mother laughed and shook her head, "That storm was pretty weird, we didn't get as much as you did though, just one or two inches."

"I bet you didn't have as strange a weekend as we did." Rin muttered.

"I don't think we did, it was pretty much the standard 'mom and dad weekend'" she said using air quotes, "you girls always do find strange things to do though."

"Yeah." Rin sighed.

The two sat together talking about their weekend for another half hour before they were called down to dinner. Everything seemed to go back to normal when her parents had called to let Rin know what time to expect them home. Everyone had split up in pairs to check in and around the house for anything that looked out of the ordinary. With a lot of encouragement from Sesshomaru, Rin went into the master bathroom with him to check on the window, only to come out completely confused when it opened and closed like it was brand new.

Rin walked in her room after dinner and laid on her bed looking at the ceiling, "I've got to stop being so paranoid." she said to herself before she stood up and got out her pajamas. She quickly got changed and headed down the hallway to the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready to go to sleep.

Once she was back in her room, she turned on her computer just to waste a few minutes before doing some of her homework, leaving the rest of it for homeroom and lunch the next day in school.

"Tomorrow sure as hell better be a whole lot better than this was." she said as she climbed into bed.

* * *

Sorry about the 2 months of no updates. Things got kind of crazy and I got stuck while writing this chapter about half way through. Eventually I pulled myself together and dragged the ending out. Sorry if there's any errors in here, I just went through it quickly to get this up faster.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own the Inuyasha characters or Cherry Bomb mufflers.

_Monday, January 19  
__5:30 AM_

The night went by uneventful for Rin, something she was not expecting at all. In fact, it was one of the most restful nights of sleep she had in a while. She didn't wake up periodically through the night from loud crashes and, judging by the appropriate time on her alarm clock, the power had been working fine.

She wasn't surprised when she rolled over to check the time and saw that it was way too early to be awake. She had fallen asleep a few minutes shy of 9 o'clock the night before, a rare occasion for herself and everyone else she knew. Groaning, she rolled back over to face the wall her bed was pushed up against in a vain attempt to go back to sleep until her alarm went off in an hour.

After concluding that sleep was not going to come, Rin sat up and put her head in her hands. "Might as well take a shower." she mumbled before grabbing a clean tee shirt and pair of shorts.

Thirty minutes later, she walked back into her room and proceeded with her daily routine. She dried her hair, put it in a loose ponytail, put on some eyeliner, and dressed in a red, school embroidered polo and a pair of khaki pants.

Rin glanced at herself in the mirror and froze when she saw something moving in the reflection. She slowly turned her head to look over her right shoulder prepared to haul ass down the stairs.

"That's embarrassing," she chuckled as she saw a tree branch swaying in the breeze.

After making breakfast for herself and her parents, Rin cleaned up in the kitchen and went into the living room. She watched the television for a few minutes before deciding she had enough of that

Rin sighed and pushed herself up and off the couch. She started walking to the steps but stopped in the hall that lead to all the rooms on the first floor when she heard a faint slam outside. She knew she heard it, but she also knew that there was no possible way it could be happening. She listened as she heard someone running up the stairs and onto the front porch.

"Gotta hide. Cant let anyone see me." she chanted as she ran up the first few steps, stopping at the landing.

From there, she would be able to see whoever was on the porch, but whoever was on the porch could not see her. She waited for the knocking before she slowly poked her head around the corner.

"Really?" she asked no one before she jumped off the landing and went to answer the door. "What could you possibly want right now?" she asked as she opened the front door.

"Oh, well you see, my car won't start and I was hoping you could give me a ride to school." Ayame said smiling.

"So instead of calling me and asking me to pick you up at your house, you walk to my house an hour before school starts and ask?"

"No." Ayame answered drawing out the word, "I got a ride with my mom on her way to work to ask you."

Rin thought about that. "Well, that does explain the slam and why you're here so early."

"Yeah, it does. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm starving." Ayame said as she made herself at home and walked to the kitchen.

Rin laughed and followed Ayame in the kitchen, "It's too bad you didn't come a half hour earlier, I made breakfast."

"Yeah, well I had your cooking a few too many times over the weekend." Ayame said while looking in the refrigerator, "I'll just make myself something simple," she added closing the door and walking to the basket of fruit on the countertop, "like this apple."

Rin watched as Ayame walked around the kitchen getting some things she deemed breakfast food. "What exactly is wrong with your car?" she asked leaning on the counter across from Ayame.

Ayame shrugged and took a bite out of her apple. "Dunno. It was fine when I left last night and when I parked it in my garage. I was going to go to the coffee shop to get some breakfast this morning, but the damn thing wouldn't start. I think I'll have the guys look at it later."

"Yeah, between the four of them, they have to come up with something."

"Exactly, I also won't have to pay to bring it to a garage to have it fixed."

"Good idea," Rin said nodding, "don't forget we have to get Kagome too, so don't get too comfortable."

"No problem, you might want to leave a few minutes earlier. I guess it rained last night and the roads froze over. We should have a delay, but you know how our school works."

"Yeah, no delay until we're half way to the school." Rin answered.

Within ten minutes, both girls were in Rin's car and backing out of the driveway. Soon enough, they were at Kagome's and on their way to school.

"But seriously, Kag, you need to get your license." Ayame said as Rin pulled into a parking spot.

"Yeah, I know, but why hurry when I have a cousin, a boyfriend, and friends all capable of driving me around?" Kagome asked.

"Well, maybe because that daddy of yours bought you that amazing car for your sixteenth birthday which is hardly ever driven because you can't drive by yourself or without someone over twenty-one yet." Rin replied.

"Yeah, but I did say we can take it places as long as someone else drives and I get automatic shotgun."

Ayame gave Kagome an exasperated look, "No you didn't!"

"Sure I did," Kagome defended, "when I first got it. Maybe you just don't remember."

"What ever, Kag," Ayame sighed as she got out of Rin's car.

The girls waited at the car for a few minutes until they decided to wait inside the school instead. It didn't take long until the rest of the group showed up and paired off.

"Hey guys, later I need you check out my car." Ayame said as she slid down the wall and sat on the floor.

Koga, who was standing next to her, did the same and put his arm around her shoulders, "What did you do this time?"

"I have no idea, that's where you come in. I know all of you guys have taken that class that shows you how to fix things with an engine."

"So we're automatically your personal mechanic?" Inuyasha asked from across the hallway.

"Nope," Rin said, "You're all of our personal mechanics, not just Ayame."

"Except me." Kagome said with her arm raised, "see, it's a good thing that I hardly drive my car, nothing happens to it and we don't have to listen to the guys complain as they try figure out what the hell is wrong with it."

Ayame rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at Kagome, "That's still not an excuse, Kag."

"Hey, I tried." Kagome said shrugging as the bell signaling the beginning of the school day went off.

* * *

_2:57 PM_

Soon, Rin found herself in algebra with Sango, Ayame, and Koga. After staring at the board or drawing pictures on the corners of her homework for forty-two long minutes, she was sitting with her friends in the back corner of the room. The rest of the class had gotten up to stand by the door, so the group had complete privacy.

"Hey, guys, sorry about last weekend. I don't know what came over me." Rin apologized for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

"Oh my god, would you please stop apologizing?" Sango asked, exasperated.

"Sorry," Rin said then chuckled, "I just feel bad about all the crap that happened and stuff."

Koga looked her, "You mean those pranks you and the girls tried to pull on us?"

"Uh," Rin stuttered, "pranks?"

"Oh, you know, the snow piled up against the house, the lights, the footprints."

While Koga explained the pranks to Rin, Ayame and Sango looked at each other, confused.

Rin had a look similar to the girls when she answered Koga, "Oh, yeah, those pranks."

"But, Rin, we -" Sango began but was cut off by the dismissal bell.

"Oh, I got to go the art room and pick something up," Rin said as she gathered her belongings, "Ayame, tell Kag that I'll meet you guys at my car." she finished as she ran out of the nearly empty classroom.

"Okay, but I'm getting a ride with Koga," Ayame called after Rin, getting quieter with each word, "And you didn't hear any of that." she added as she walked out of the classroom with Koga and Sango.

* * *

Rin ran out of the classroom and down the hall towards the art corridor. Looking behind to make sure none of her friends were behind her, she ran to the bathroom across from one of the art rooms.

Just as she was about to push the door open, it was pulled open from the other side. A girl, a year ahead of Rin, smiled and held the door.

"Thanks." Rin said as she walked into the bathroom.

"Yep." the girl answered as she turned left toward the lockers.

Rin didn't check to see if she was alone, she picked a stall and locked herself in. She put the lid of the toilet down and sat on it for a few minutes to collect her thoughts.

"What did he mean by pranks we pulled on the guys?" she whispered to herself, "Do the guys honestly think that?"

She sat there until she heard a group of girls younger than her come in the bathroom. She noticed that some tears had made their way down her cheeks so she quickly wiped them away before she hurried out of the bathroom with her head down.

As soon as she was in the hallway, she noticed Kagome standing by the art room door. Kagome looked at her funny before asking her why she wasn't where she said she would be.

"Oh, I had to go to the bathroom before I got my thing," she made up.

"Can I at least have your keys?" Kagome asked impatiently, "if you remember, it snowed the other day and its freezing out."

"Yeah, here." Rin answered pulling the keys out of her bag, "I'll be right back."

"Gotcha." Kagome said half way down the hall.

Rin leaned against the wall and sighed, "This day is starting to suck."

"And why's that?" someone asked from the industrial arts room.

Rin looked over to see Sesshomaru walking out with a metal toolbox in one of his hands, "because we girls aren't as good of prankers as we thought we were."

"Obviously, I didn't even notice anything you did today."

"That's because we didn't do anything, I'm talking about over the weekend."

"Rin," Sesshomaru started.

"Hey, if that's what you guys think, its better than what I thought." she cut him off. "What are the tools for?" she asked changing the subject.

"Miroku and I are the only two that have this class last period, but Rok ran off leaving me to be the one to bring the tools."

"Good luck with the car." Rin teased as she stood up, "Want to walk me to mine?" she asked as she stretched out her hand.

"Sure thing," Sesshomaru answered, taking her hand in his free one.

They walked together to Rin's car where Kagome was waiting and quickly said goodbye. The only thing on Rin's mind was to get home to figure out what was going on.

* * *

_6:30 PM_

"Can you believe it? A tiny hole in my gas tank!" Ayame yelled into her phone, "Why didn't I smell the gas. Obviously it was there and leaking for awhile if my car stopped working this morning."

"I don't know, Ayame." Rin answered only half listening.

"Neither do I!" she groaned, "How am I gonna get this fixed?"

"Take it to a mechanic." Rin answered slowly.

"Well duh, but I don't really want to pay that much. You think the guys can fix it?"

"I think you're lucky the guys found the hole in the first place. Let's not give them too much credit now."

"But it would be cheaper." Ayame reasoned.

Rin laughed, "Yeah, until one of them messes up or gets hurts," she said.

Rin listened to Ayame talk about nothing important as she walked up to her room. Her light was on, but she remembered turning it off before she left the room earlier. She brushed it off and sat down on her bed. She let Ayame finish what she was saying before making up an excuse about cleaning up the house before her parents got home and hung up.

Rin let out a sigh as she fell back on her bed with her eyes closed. She laid there in silence until she heard a scratching sound coming from her window. It sounded like someone trying to open the window from the outside. Slowly, she redirected her eyes to the window, but she couldn't see anything in the darkness outside. She squeezed her eyes shut and lay still hoping that what ever was outside would give up and leave.

Rin almost screamed when her phone started to ring next to her. With her eyes still closed, she moved her right hand and felt around for the phone. Without looking at the caller ID, Rin pressed the phone to her ear. She tried to calm herself before she spoke but couldn't do it fast enough.

"Hello, Rin? Rin, are you there?" she heard Sesshomaru's voice grow frantic with each word.

The scratching seemed to become more violent and urgent against the window causing Rin let out a small cry, "Yeah, I'm here."

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

"I don't know, something's outside my window. I think it's trying to get in." she explained as the scratching continued.

"I'll be right over there." he said and Rin could hear the distinct sounds of doors slamming and engines turning over.

"Please hurry," she begged.

"Don't worry, babe," Sesshomaru said trying to calm Rin, "keep talking to me until I get there. I'm about three blocks away."

The scratching had seemed to have stopped and Rin tried to keep her mind off of it. "So, who found the hole in the gas tank?" she asked with a shaky voice.

"Inu, the dummy did something right for once." he answered laughing lightly. "I can see the streetlight in front of your house."

"I said hurry, not break all the laws."

"Sorry, I guess I'm a little caught up in the moment." he joked. "I'm right outside now." he told her.

That surprised Rin. Normally she would have seen his headlights shine through her window and onto her wall, just like every other car's that drove past her house. She also didn't hear him coming up, and he didn't have the most quiet car all thanks to the CherryBomb muffler he had installed. She brushed it off thinking that she missed both signs of his arrival because she was too focused on her window.

"What the hell?" he whispered to himself without taking his cell phone away from his ear. "Rin, don't leave your -" he began but was cut off by Rin.

"It's starting again." she yelled into the phone just before her window lifted up allowing the cold air rush in before it slammed back down, "Sesshomaru, hurry up, it's going to get in!" she cried.

"Don't worry, just stay in your room, when I yell for you to get up, lock your door and window. Close the blinds too."

"Be careful, I love you." she whispered as tears blinded her.

"I love you too." he answered before he ended the call.

Rin laid on her bed, sobbing while trying to stay perfectly still. She tried to control herself as she heard the scratches become quicker followed by a crash from outside her window.

"Lock the door!" she heard Sesshomaru yell.

Rin shot up and ran to the door and turn the lock. She then ran to the window and locked that before pulling the curtains closed. She leaned on the wall next to her window and continued sobbing as she heard yells and crashes from outside. This was it, now she knew that she had finally lost control of the situation. All because of some psycho outside in the dark.

* * *

Sorry about the long wait again. I finished writing this chapter not too long after I finished chapter 5. I convinced myself that I had posted it until I went to check it for something for the next chapter, which is almost done.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry about leaving you hanging since august. I didn't review this chapter much, so it would get up faster. Again, I don't own anything.

_6:54 PM_

Rin didn't know how long she had been sitting on the floor in her bedroom crying into her knees. It felt like hours had passed since she had locked the door. Occasionally, she would hear something falling outside, but that was all she heard and she was terrified of what that meant.

A few minutes went by without any sort of noise coming from outside. Somehow, she worked up the courage to peek out of her window to try and find Sesshomaru. As she peered out the window, she saw someone run through someone's yard two houses down then run across the street. She quickly ducked under the windowsill praying that she hadn't been seen.

Rin stayed like that until she grew restless, Sesshomaru should have been back by now. She wasn't sure, but after looking at her alarm clock, she guessed he had been outside for almost twenty minutes now.

After quickly taking her jacket and boots from her closet, she unlocked her door. She opened the door just enough the see out into the hallway before opening it some more and poking her head out. The small light at the end of the hallway glowed and cast shadows all around. Rin took a deep breath before slowly walking out of her room.

"The things I do." she mumbled as she slowly walked toward the stairs, sticking as close to the wall as she possibly could.

Once she had made it down the stairs, she slowly went into the kitchen, never venturing too far from the wall. Grateful that she left the light on, she slowly walked through the room. Rin glanced around herself, looking for something she could use to defend herself if the need arose. Nothing seemed practical to take and drag through the snow, everything was either too big and heavy or not big and heavy enough.

Just as she was about to give up, Rin remembered the golf clubs her father had insisted on dragging out of the basement earlier. She didn't know why he had felt the need to have them out of the basement and in the closet, but right now she was not complaining.

Once she picked out a driver from the bag of clubs, she was back in the kitchen. Surprising herself by hesitating for only a moment, Rin pulled the sliding glass door open and stepped into the cold winter air.

She slowly walked off the ice covered patio and into her back yard. At first, she didn't know where to go, but found a trail of two sets of footprints to follow through her yard and into the woods. Cautiously, she walked in the footprints and followed them deeper than she ever remembered going in the trees. Each step made her even more nervous and she raised her driver with every noise around her.

About twenty feet away, Rin was able to make out a lump in the snow. The glow from the streetlights was long gone, so for all she knew, the lump could be a pile of snow or something else.

Rin began to walk at a painfully slow pace with her weapon poised to attack at the slightest movement. Each step she took, she could feel the anxiety build in her until she felt like she could explode.

Her eyes at adjusted to the lack of light long ago, and now she could make out that the lump was definitely human. Silently cursing herself for not thinking to bring a flashlight, she closed the distance between herself and the person lying in the snow.

A light dusting of snow had fallen and covered everything, but Rin could still make out the coat that belonged to Sesshomaru. She dropped to her knees with tears already falling and placed her hand over Sesshomaru's mouth and nose. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she felt the warm air on her fingers.

Her relief soon turned back to anxiety when she noticed that he hadn't moved since she got there. She carefully shook Sesshomaru while calling his name hoping to wake him and get him back to her house. It didn't take long before his eyes slowly opened and he tried to turn over and sit up.

"Oh my god, Sesshomaru, are you okay? What the hell happened? Why are you out here so far?" she spewed question after question.

With his left hand, Sesshomaru covered Rin's mouth to get her to stop talking, "I'm fine, except my right hand has a slight pain in it and a few scrapes. I threw an ice ball at some guy that was at your window, we had a little fight in your yard, he ran out here, and that's all I remember." he answered thankful for the lack of light.

"Come on," Rin said getting up, "let's go to my house and get you cleaned up."

Within minutes, the couple had made it out of the woods and were in Rin's back yard. Rin was doing the best she could to help Sesshomaru, who was walking with a slight limp while insisting everything was fine, to get to the house.

"The back door has ice all around it," Rin warned as Sesshomaru tried to turn to go in through the kitchen, "We're almost at the path to the front door, where there's no ice."

"Just try not to freak out too much when you see out front then." Sesshomaru said quietly.

"Why?" Rin asked looking at him for the first time, her small smile falling.

The light still wasn't all that good. It came from the streetlights and reflected off the snow, giving everything a yellow tint.

"Oh, you'll see." Sesshomaru answered as they turned the corner and walked in the front yard.

Rin looked ahead and stopped short. Her eyes widened as she took in the scene around her. The yellow tint in the snow did nothing to disguise the obvious dark spots scattered around. The once beautiful snow that covered yard now had deep gashes that signaled violent fighting and struggling.

Rin turned her head toward the house and saw a ladder laying in the snow just a few feet in front of them. One end was placed directly under her window and the other end had fallen to another deep hole in the snow.

"Uh," Rin stuttered, "We should get you cleaned up." she said before walking to the house, leaving Sesshomaru in the yard.

"Yeah." he said limping after her.

-------

_7:45 PM_

"I thought you said that you only had some scrapes," Rin said looked at Sesshomaru for in the bright light.

"I guess I have a high tolerance for pain." Sesshomaru said shrugging, causing him to wince.

"Yeah, yeah, a high tolerance of pain," Rin teased, "your nose was bleeding, you have a bruise on you eyebrow, cuts all over, and why wont you show me your hand?" she demanded.

"I don't think you want to see it." he warned.

Rin rolled her eyes, "Just let me see your damn hand," she said as she stuck her own hand out between them.

Sesshomaru let out an exasperated sigh as he thrust his hand into Rin's upturned one.

"And this is the hand that only slightly hurts?" Rin asked sarcastically.

"Yep." he answered calmly.

Rin inspected Sesshomaru's hand closely. "Yeah, because its bruising, swollen, and," she said before tightly squeezing his hand.

"Fuck." Sesshomaru hissed in pain.

"Mhmm, definitely only sore." she confirmed letting go of his hand.

Sesshomaru smirked, "Told ya."

Rin continued to look at his hand, "Just let me check something out," she said before taking his hand again and tapping each finger. Each time, he grimaced but didn't say anything.

She dropped his hand and turned around to get the first aid kit on the countertop. After cleaning out each of Sesshomaru's cuts and looking at every bruise, Rin went to the closet and took out their coats.

"Put that on, we've got to go get your hand checked out."

"You're overreacting." he said while putting on the coat.

"Of course I am," she said rolling her eyes for the second time. "Come on, I'm taking you to get that checked out."

"It's really not that bad." he argued as Rin handed him his jacket.

"Humor me." Rin replied as she put on her own coat.

---------

_8:30 PM_

"I don't see any point of coming here." Sesshomaru argued as Rin found a parking spot.

Rin sighed and turned off the car, "Will you stop being such a man for a second and get your hand looked at before it falls off or something?"

"Sure," he said getting out of the car at the same time as Rin, "and I would have done it more willingly if you hadn't called everyone to tell them what happened." he said as they walked hand in hand to the emergency room.

"Okay, I get it, you're all tough and guy-like and don't want any one to know that you got your ass handed you to in the woods. I completely understand." Rin teased as the automatic doors slide open. "Mmm, smell that beautiful hospital smell?"

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and chuckled, "Yeah, its wonderful."

"See, be positive and it'll all work out." Rin said as she walked to the reception desk. She got the necessary paperwork and walked back over to Sesshomaru who was sitting on one of the stiff chairs. "You know you'll have to fill this out," she said handing him the paper.

Sesshomaru looked at her and smiled, "And you know, you'll have to write it for me since I can't seem to use this," he said nodding to his broken right hand.

"Whatever, drama queen," Rin sighed as she sat down. "Hey, Sesh, got a pen?"

"Seriously?" he asked incredulously.

"Naw," she replied taking a pen out of her bag, "just wanted to see what you'd do."

After what seemed like hours of filling out forms and waiting to be seen, Sesshomaru was called back to be seen. He and Rin both followed a nurse to a room with three beds each separated by an ugly green curtain.

"Hello, I'm Nancy, I'll be checking your vitals before the doctor sees you," the nurse said with a fake cheery voice and smile.

For the hundredth time that day, Sesshomaru rolled his eyes, "I hurt my hand, I wasn't involved in something deadly."

With that the fake smile fell from the nurse's face and the sweet voice was gone. "Listen kid, I just pulled a double and you're the last person I have to see. And believe me, I want to check your vitals about as much as you want them checked, so I suggest you shut up and let me do this so we both can get out of here faster."

"Great," Sesshomaru smirked, "so what's first?"

"On the scale," she said pointing to the scale by the wall. After getting his weight, she instructed him to sit on the bed where she took his temperature, blood pressure, and asked the required questions.

"Have a great night you two," she said as she exited the room and pulled the curtain closed.

"Well, she was terrifying." Rin said.

"I don't know, I think I liked her." Sesshomaru said thoughtfully.

Rin's eyes widened as she stared at him, "You would."

"Well, what can I say?"

"Nothing, I hope," Rin said more to herself.

Soon, a man dressed in scrubs opened the curtain while looking at some papers.

"Alright, Sesshomaru, hurt and most likely broken right hand." the doctor read aloud from the papers he was reading. He took one look up from the papers and at Sesshomaru's hand, "Most definitely broken right hand," he amended. "Well come on, its almost ten and I'm sure neither of you want to spend your night here." the doctor said as he led the way out of the emergency room.

"So much for introductions," Rin mumbled as she and Sesshomaru followed the doctor who had yet to tell them his name.

"I don't mind, he gets things done fast," Sesshomaru defended.

"Okay, in here," the doctor said when they reached a door labeled Radiology. "So we're going to have your hand x-rayed to find the break and see how bad it is, then we'll cast it and send you out," he said before turning to speak to the technician.

"I can't believe I put up such a fight coming here," Sesshomaru said, " these people, are my kind of people."

"I just can't believe these people work here," Rin said.

An hour and one bright green cast later, Rin and Sesshomaru were walking hand in hand through the hospital. They made it to the sliding doors of the emergency room entrance in silence thankful to be leaving before Sesshomaru looked to the left and stopped walking.

"Uh, Rin, why are they here?" he asked pointing to their friends in the waiting room.

"Well, I imagine they wanted to make sure you were okay," she answered shrugging.

"Want to leave them?"

"Yeah," Rin answered without hesitation.

"Good, you're driving." he said as they began to walk out into the cold air.

"So where do you want to go?" Rin asked as she started the car.

Sesshomaru pretended to think about his answered as Rin maneuvered out of the parking lot. "How about a sleep over at my house?"

Rin smiled and turned onto the main road, "Sounds like fun."

"You can be the first to sign my cast," he offered.

"How sweet," she said as she stopped at a red light and kissed his cheek.


End file.
